Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a ‘pedigree’ Scot, both my father and my mother are Scottish, but I was born in India, brought up in Scotland, went to school in Edinburgh then I went to visit my sister in East Africa, stayed there for 7 years and was married in that time. We then came back to Scotland when Idi Amin took over Uganda and bought a small hill farm amongst the mountains. We brought up our children there and after 20 years emigrated to Australia. My heart, however, is in the mountains and in the heat and flatness of West Australia I yearned for a cool breeze on a mountain top with the hills rolling into the distance before me. When farming in Scotland I wrote a regular weekly column ‘Diary of a Farmer’s Wife’ for the Scottish Farming Paper and also wrote three historical Guide Books of the area. These books followed a route in a car or on bicycles with stories of the places that are passed on the way. The books have been in circulation when I am able to get back to Scotland and distribute them to local outlets. I came back to Scotland for three weeks in February 2020 and after two weeks we went into lockdown and I was stranded. I decided to use the time writing another historical guide book and to put that and all the other three onto Amazon so that they could sell while I was in Australia with my children and grandchildren. So this is the first one to hit Amazon after wanting to do this for so long it is a great thrill. Three more to come and then, hopefully, audiobooks for ease when travelling and listening to the tales of the places that are passed on the route.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The latest book is ‘Pitlochry and the Road to the Isles’. This book finished off the three books that I wrote many years ago and ties up the stories of the area. I was inspired to write the first of the books when I learnt that the name of the farm we had bought was ‘Donafuil’. This is Gaelic for ‘field of blood’. Obviously that meant that at some stage in the past a battle had taken place on the farm. But what battle and when? A visit to a library, the discover of the battle and I was totally hooked on the history of the area. I felt everyone should know about it and someone should write a book and tell them. No-one else came forward. So I did.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really. When I was farming and writing the first ones I had to do my reading and research in the middle of the night because the day was taken up with farming, children, two shops, articles, broadcasting on radio…………….the middle of the night was my only free time.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Sir Walter Scott, Charles Dickens and the classical writers. They have such a beautiful turn of phrase.
What are you working on now?
I am working on putting my historical books on Amazon now but I have written a book about my second son and want to bring him into writing parts of it when I get back, eventually, to Australia. He died when he was 17 but was resuscitated. His life following this was singular to say the least.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
If its in you and want out – let it out!!
What are you reading now?
The Glasshouse
What’s next for you as a writer?
A series of stories of our life on the farm in Scotland ‘A Diary of a Farmer’s Wife’
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Bible. A set of Dickens, A set of Sir Walter Scott and Ian Rankin’s Rebus series.
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